Lazarus, come forth!

Don't you just hate it when someone who doesn’t even have a college diploma challenges trained seminary graduates “who has letters after their names” (as Spyros ‘Amerikano’ Chalkiopoulos asked Mrs. Durrell in the film My Family and Other Animals) on points biblical or theological? I know I do, because it really shouldn’t be necessary.
Why don’t the seminaries teach them these things?



There is no Catholic way of salvation, there is no Protestant way. There are only explanations and interpretations, and these are undoubtedly human. These are not what is meant by the concept of παράδοσις, parádhosis, ‘the handing over’ of the truth of the Gospel.

The παράδοσις is what was handed over verbally and practically by Christ and His holy apostles to the believers. Most of what is meant by this term has ended up in the New Testament. In fact, if you believe in the divine economy, all of what was handed over by the apostles is in the New Testament. The problem seems to be all about interpretation. It is this human failing, the desire to ‘be right,’ that has tried to rip asunder the seamless robe that clothes the Body of Christ.

Staying in the Word, reading, hearing and living it as it is, we will have returned to that place where we again put on that seamless robe. There is one faith, one Lord, one baptism, as we know. It is mankind in its argumentative and speculative vanity that has tried to tear the robe to shreds, while all think that they have gambled for the entire robe, and won it. The seamless robe is intact, but only for those who really want to wear it, and who want to share it with Christ's holy and pure Body.

Like Lazarus, we are still tangled in our strips of mortuary linen like dead men. Jesus still calls out to us, “Come forth!” We don't have to remain dead, unless we want to. Like Lazarus, once you know for sure that it is the voice of Jesus calling you out, who would want to stay in that tomb?

Wake up from your sleep,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.
Ephesians 5:14 Jerusalem Bible

There is only one way of salvation, and it is simply but amply testified throughout the scriptures. We need to really believe that the Word of God, not our interpretations of it, is what constitutes the Truth. That is the παράδοσις. That is what the apostles handed over to us. That is what makes our faith, if we believe their testimony, apostolic.

I am for tearing off the costumes we wear in front of each other as we go into battle. Why? Because our battle is not with each other, but against the powers of wickedness in the heavens. If we really want to fight each other, let’s strip ourselves, and see—we're all the same! Then, let’s put on the only garment worth having, because He gives it to all who believe in Him, His own skin! All who have been baptized have put on Christ, as the scriptures say. And what baptism is that? Being buried with Christ in His death, so as to rise with Him in His glorious resurrection.

I’m trying to move beyond thinking about God, to just living in Him. I’m trying to cut through the knots of tangled lore that have kept us encamped on the devil’s playground so long, fighting each other.

What would happen, if suddenly the various Christian missions and denominations in a majority Muslim country like Indonesia or Malaysia (which still allow the existence of Christianity) suddenly were seen to absolutely and without reserve support each other in everything, even without coalescing into one uniform institution? Everything that they disagree about, they would agree to just pray and ask the Lord to intercede for each other’s folly, and then, with that out of the way, just “go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them.”

Hey! What if we can’t agree on how and whom to baptize, and when? Well, that’s just some more folly that we have to ask the Lord to forgive and correct. Meanwhile, let’s all just go in to the harvest field, and work, because night is coming when no one can work, and because “the time is close.”

But what about groups like the Mormons, who say they are Christians, but really aren’t?

I’ve thought about groups like the Mormons, and of course, there are others besides them who straddle a ‘gray area.’ I think the fearful divide is the question whether one accepts the Holy Bible as the only divinely revealed scripture on earth. If the answer is ‘yes,’ then we start from there, if we must, to peel people ‘off the salvation list’ by testing them on other things.


But do you see what that makes us? Judges, and corrupt judges at that, because we can only see as through a glass darkly and have no view at all of what is happening in a person's soul, where they meet God face to face.

We have to learn to trust more in God and in the Word of God, Jesus Christ, and simply follow His directions and instructions without adding to them. Look where we have ended up by adding to the παράδοσις: ‘The world’ drives by mega-churches and through intersections (in Kansas and elsewhere) where there’s a different church on each of the four corners. Shameful, and blasphemous, that we who say we believe in Jesus Christ trash His words and His prayer so boldly, thinking it will not bite us in the end.

One more time—what would happen if we all supported each other (barring those groups, I suppose who deny the Word of God is the sole divine scripture on earth) and defended each other to every attack from the outside?


Overnight, the non-Christian world would be astonished and possibly fall like a house of cards, because at last, they have seen what Jesus said, “They will know you are Mine because you love one another.”



This is not a plug for the ‘ecumenical movement’ which I do not believe in. This is a plea for obedience to the word of Jesus.

No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
John 1:18 King James Version


θεον ουδεις εωρακεν πωποτε ο μονογενης υιος ο ων εις τον κολπον του πατρος εκεινος εξηγησατο

This post is about an ikon.


Ikons are painted, two-dimensional images which have been used by the Church for centuries. They say that the first ikons were painted by holy evangelist Luke, using the encaustic method which was contemporarily used to paint images of the dead on their coffin lids in Hellenistic Egypt. This is certainly a possibility. Others like to point at the images painted on the walls of the catacombs and say that those were the first ikons.


If it were a matter of simply painting a picture of Christ, or a saint, the catacomb art might be considered ikons, but they also painted mere symbols there as well. What ikons are considered today is something different. It is said they are written, not painted. They are supposed to depict only what is historically true, though they can mix elements anachronistically in the same ikon. They are meant to be "windows into heaven," and a graphic equivalent of the Bible, which is why they must adhere to very strict rules.


The ikon of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Triad of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is supposed to be depicted only from what is explicitly or implicitly revealed in the Bible. As such, the two most common ikons of the Trinity are (1) the hospitality of Abraham, and (2) the baptism of Christ. In the first, the Triad of angels that visited Abram and Sarai at the oak of Mamre are the Trinity in a mystery. In the second, the baptism of Christ depicts the Triad as the Voice (the Father, sometimes shown by His hand), the Dove (the Spirit) and Christ Himself.


Today, as I was hunting for an ikon of Mark the Evangelist to use in my Greek New Testament blog Η Καινή Διαθήκη, I ran across a Chinese website that had a large selection of ikons, some of which are very unique. Though I did not find the ikon I was searching for, I did find two others that I saved, and I added the site to the Christian Art link list in the side bar, as 正教圣像 Orthodox Ikons. If you go to this site to view the ikons, at the bottom of the page, clicking on a small flower image will take you to the main page with additional links. Everything is in Chinese!


Back to the topic, a certain ikon, in fact, the ikon at the top of this post.


The name of this ikon at the website is Paternitas, which is Latin for Fatherhood, I think. This is actually an ikon of the Holy Triad, but not in the traditional, scriptural form. It really impressed me, nonetheless, and then the word came to me, "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father." This unusual ikon really is a depiction in visual form of this bible verse, John 1:18. The Dove for the Holy Spirit is borrowed, of course, from the baptism ikon, and the surrounding of seraphim, from the ikon of the vision of holy prophet Isaiah, but everything is still biblical.


One other ikon from the site is a massively detailed ikon of the Resurrection of Christ and His Descent into Hades. It is an excellent example of how an ikon can depict a theological panorama (> Greek, pan = everything, orama = view), provoking questions and suggesting answers, drawing our attention always to the scriptures, and through them by the Holy Spirit's leading, to the living Christ, thus completing the cycle of illumination. An ikon never causes us to stop and stare. A true ikon drives us into the wilderness to seek the Truth.


Yes, I am making a road in the wilderness,
paths in the wilds.
The wild beasts will honour Me,
jackals and ostriches,
because I am putting water in the wilderness,
rivers in the wild,
to give My chosen people drink.
The people I have formed for myself
will sing my praises.
Isaiah 43:19b-21 Jerusalem Bible

The Lord came, not to do something easy, but to do something true. He came to bring truth and life. By His obedience unto death, He rent from top to bottom the veil of corruption and rebellion that separated us from God, and He opened to us the entrance to the Holy of Holies of freedom and unity. He did not come to unite men among themselves by making light of their differences. He did not come to exhort us to mere "peaceful coexistence." He came to unite us, through Himself, with His Father and our Father. "For through Him we have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18).

He did not aim to leave behind Him a group of individuals working well together, for even sinners do this: they cooperate with sinners (cf. Matthew 5:47). He came to give us rebirth and to bring a new unity, one which is trinitarian; to bring a peace which passes all understanding, His own: "My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you" (John 14:27).

…He came to give Himself, to distribute His flesh: "Take, eat My Body which is broken." He came to give His Spirit: "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). So He created the little flock of the twelve, the Church. He brought to the world the dynamic force and health of the Trinity, the leaven of the Kingdom which will leaven the three measures which represent the whole of creation (cf. Luke 13:21).

What the world needs is the trinitarian flock, regardless of whether it is small or large. Its greatness is to be found in its trinitarian nature. What man thirsts for is eternity, "even a little part of eternity"; and this is what we have here. To have the character of the Trinity is to be eternal. "This is eternal life, that they know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).

I don’t believe one has to understand or even know all that can be understood and known about the Godhead, even such essential doctrines as the Trinity, to be saved. Salvation happens when any soul turns sincerely and uniquely to Jesus as its Savior, and that is the core out of which all other experience, knowledge and understanding spring.

The thief on the cross beside Jesus knew only one thing, Jesus is the Messiah, the King of Israel. He didn’t even understand salvation apart from being merely remembered by Jesus. He hadn’t been instructed. He hadn’t been confessed of his sins. He hadn’t been baptized. He hadn’t received the Holy Eucharist. He hadn’t read the bible. He knew no other fact, other than the fact that the Man who hung beside him had ultimate and perfect power to save.

What astonishing faith! Knowing they were all going to be dead very soon, he asks the Man beside him who likewise would be dead, to remember him in His kingdom. For me, what’s happening when a person is joined to Jesus unto the kingdom and life eternal, is exactly the same as what happened with the thief. Everything else that engulfs that moment of saving recognition can be dispensed with, when necessary. Everything can be dispensed with, except that moment.

Human society has been evolving over the centuries from very integrated, homogeneous populations with little or no individual liberties under authoritarian rulers, to very diverse populations with almost unlimited individual freedoms under representative, limited rulers.

The first model of society, a patriarchal monarchy, was an enlarged version of the patriarchal nuclear family. Father rules, mother supports and advises, children obey and are mentored by both. Father’s religion, his political beliefs, his ethics are passed on to mother and children, all questions barred. Hence, the early states of human culture.

Hebrew society, homogeneous, and kept so by pruning, as needed. Greco-Roman society, far less homogeneous, but still held uniform by use of force, even brutal force. Christian society, again more homogeneous like its Hebrew ancestor, and kept so by authoritarian structures modeled on the nuclear family, as before.

Christian society, having within itself something new that was also nascent in Hebrew and Greco-Roman society, the concept of individual as opposed to group identity, evolved and continues to evolve into a society which grows more diverse and individualistic, undermining the bases of all prior human societies.

It has been assumed since the beginning of the age of revolutions (probably the Puritan revolution in England, perhaps earlier) that there is such a thing as human rights, and by that it is assumed, individual rights. With each succeeding revolution, 1688 in England, 1776 in America, 1789, 1830 and 1848 in France, this concept of the individual as paramount, even over every earthly power or authority, has grown in strength and momentum.

Most of these ideas of individual liberty find their origin in the bible, specifically the New Testament. Why, then, the rise of Christian societies that were still every bit as authoritarian and ignorant or contemptuous of human rights as their predecessors? There is a tension in the gospel which is in fact inherited from the Hebrew prophets between the individual and society, both seeming to make demands on us, ethically. It’s this tension, or ambiguity, that lies at the root of what is currently happening in modern society.

Traditional society is based on the family. Modern society is based on the individual. Where does Christian society fit into this, and is there even such a thing?

It goes even further back than this. Traditional societies are organic in the same way that the bodies of complex life forms are organic. The individual cells in a human body have different functions, but none of them has the right to go its own way. None can leave the body, except by death. Dead cells are excreted and replaced by new. Again, the cells in a complex life form have no free will. They are what they are by coming into being as part of an organism.

Modern societies are, from this viewpoint, inorganic. They are something like clusters of single celled organisms that can stay together, creating an illusion of society, but which can go their own way, or even operate against an enveloping cluster in which they find themselves engulfed.

The seemingly unstoppable momentum of modern world society, evolving from traditional, organic societies with little individualism, to a single inorganic one in which individualism is the priority, is actually an illusion. What is happening is, non-individuals are being converted into individuals momentarily, so that they can be reincorporated into a new authoritarian anti-individualism even more brutal than the worst of those seen earlier in history.

The world wants to be a society of individuals with total liberty, and that makes true society impossible, because individual wills seek their own good, not the good of society. The only way, then, to have any semblance or illusion of society at all is to impose authority once again, and there is no way to do this other than by violence to the individual in one form or another.

Nascent within Christian society, even from its beginnings, is the society described by the prophets of Israel, and realized by the first disciples of Jesus Christ. For lack of a better term, I will call this “true society.” Later on, I will give it its proper name.

True society looks like traditional society because it is organic, based on nature, but that is only the beginning. True society has perfect individual liberty, because every individual will is attuned to and voluntarily in agreement with one Mind. Individual wills seek the good of society because they want to, not because they must. Why would they want to? Because love binds them together, not force. Where is there such a society, if it exists?

The life of the Holy Triad is exactly that kind of society. That life was hidden from mankind until the coming of one of the divine Persons in that Triad, namely Jesus Christ, to earth. In His life and commandments we see the possibility of true society, of living the life of heaven on earth, which is the life inherent in the Holy Triad.

This is the society that we were made for, at once patriarchal, familial, ordered, yet providing the greatest degree of personal, individual liberty. Christ came to free us from our passions, and He has accomplished that work in those who follow Him.

This is no “giving us freedom to take it away again.” That is the game of religion. No, the very life of the Holy Triad is open to us, we too can be One just as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are One. That is the essence of Jesus’ high-priestly prayer for us.

The world will continue moving in the direction of greater and greater “freedom” towards a destination of totalitarian chaos, as organic and living society devolves into inorganic and dead society. It has already realized that it cannot have it both ways, and so the machine has begun to take over the functions of the living man.

We who are in Christ, brethren, are moving in the opposite direction, as death is being put to death in us, and we are being raised to life like the son of the widow of Nain.

That procession was heading for the graveyard. Jesus and His disciples were going the other way, and He took death captive, releasing a dead man to life. Let us love one another, and insist on nothing less than living the life of the Holy Triad, the only true society unto the ages of ages.

Αγιος ο Θεός, Αγιος Ισχυρός, Αγιος Αθάνατος, ελέησον ημάς.
Aghios o Theós, Aghios Is’chyrós, Aghios Athánatos, eléïson imás.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us!


One only is Holy, but He is God, He is Mighty, and He is Deathless. Not three Holies, but One, we know Him as God the Father, as His Mighty Son, and as His Deathless Holy Spirit. Even in this most ancient of all prayer cries, the undivided Triad is manifest. The undivided Trinity, as believed in and lived in the Holy Church for, yes, we do not presume to know the how, but the Who, of God.

We know that God is One. This is no secret even to the polytheist if he is a thinking man. Humankind did not evolve an idea of One God by gradually adding spirit to spirit, god to god, by a sort of mathematical reduction. If anyone has arrived at the idea of such a ‘one god’ in this fashion, that ‘god’ is certainly not the God of the Bible, not the God of Jesus Christ.

No, for the only God that is, the self-existing Divine Nature, revealed through His manifold works, the material universe and seen by the mind of rational men, was at the beginning with man, just as the Bible tells in the story of Adam and Eve and the original paradise. ‘The man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day…’ (Genesis 3:.

It was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world, as well as the worship of many gods. Man devolved from relational monotheism to religious polytheism. Religion in the Garden of Eden? Hardly! What would be the need? There God walked with man and spoke to us face to face. Religion only came upon our race as sickness comes, a sickness called sin that brings death.

Human beings the world over have always believed in the immortality of the soul, but this is an unfounded belief. It is more of a hope, and a vain hope, as there is no proof in nature of our personal survival of death. ‘Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?’ (Ecclesiastes 3:21). We find ancient graves well-stocked for living somewhere.

Almost all religions believe something like this: ‘The soul of man is immortal and cannot die.’ This is what you find among Hindus, for example, who believe what is taught by their god Krishna, ‘That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul’ (Bhagavad Gita 2:17). For them, the ‘imperishable soul’ lives on through reincarnation.

For others, especially in East Asia, the souls of their ancestors are alive ‘somewhere’ and must be appeased, cared for, and helped. This is the most prevalent belief of most of humanity. In the three ‘Abrahamic’ faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, this belief takes on added content: the good ‘go to heaven’ at death, the bad ‘go to hell.’ This is, of course, at the level of popular religion.

As C. S. Lewis has written, ‘To believe in the popular religion of modern England is retrogression — like believing the earth is flat’ (Mere Christianity, Book 4, Chapter 1), and the same is true of the popular religion of the biblically illiterate everywhere. For many people, it’s just not worth the time and effort to learn and understand the truths of faith, what man is, who God is, and how He deals with us.

The soul of man, despite our wishful thinking, our pious hopes, and our individual speculations, is not immortal by nature. Only One is Immortal, just as only One is God, and only One is Mighty. Having been originally made in His image, our first parents shared in the Divine Nature, in Might, and in Immortality, but by their rebellion, the image of God in them and us was broken.

We are born into a fallen world, disfigured, that is, dis-imaged, damaged, and what would have been an immortal soul in us, is immortal no longer, by nature.

We live and move and have our being only in God, only by His grace, only by His gift, only by His remembrance of us. Why else do we find in the psalms the petition to ‘remember us’, why else did the thief say to Christ, ‘remember me’?

We are living souls only by the good will of our Creator, who remembers us in life and in death. The soul of man, as it turns out, is immortal after all, but not by nature. Our lives are in His hands. Whether we are alive in the body or gone to ‘be with the Lord’, it is all by His will, by His mercy. How totally we are dependent on Him for everything! Knowing He loves us removes the fear of death.

When we pray the Trisagion, ‘Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us!’ how true this prayer is, how wonderful that it has been revealed to us! We can depend on God, in fact He expects us to depend on Him, for everything, especially for our earthly life, and for the immortality that only He can grant us. There is so much more I would say if I could, but all I can say is, Thank You, Lord.

If we know the Bible, we know that tattoos should not be applied, because that is to deface the body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It doesn't really relate to the prohibition in the Hebrew scriptures about "do not gash yourselves."

Whoever said above, 'getting a tattoo doesn't make me a sinner,' is right, of course. We are all already sinners, and getting a tattoo is sinful only when you get it to disrespect God. Having a tattoo that says Jesus is Lord is a misguided idea, based on what I wrote at first, but one Christian who has no tattoos should not look down on another Christian who does have them, because that goes against Christ's commandment, which is greater than having or not having tattoos. What commandment? Love your neighbor as I have loved you.

We have no excuse to judge our neighbor for having tattoos or not having them. Everyone must be left free to make his own choice.

Purgatory is a Roman Catholic idea that has no substance or authority from the Bible; it is speculation and human invention.
No, 7th Day Adventists don't believe in Purgatory.

Hell, that's harder. What does a person mean by hell? The lake of fire mentioned in the book of Revelation? Or some imaginary places with fire, devils and pitchforks?

Brother, after death the soul goes to the place of departed spirits. If the soul loves God, it feels this place in a pleasant and restful way, and we call it 'the bosom of Abraham' or 'paradise'. If the soul hates God, it feels this place in a painful and unrestful way, and we call it "hades" or "hell."

But neither heaven nor hell exists fully until after the end of the world. Until then the departed souls are waiting either in comfort or in discomfort for the final judgment and their final reward or punishment. This is the Orthodox Christian view, based on the story told by Jesus of the rich man and Lazarus in the gospel of Luke 16:19-31.

The 7th Day Adventists don't believe in either the temporary "hades" or "hell" or in the eternal hell, the lake of fire, or anything like that. They believe the wicked are simply annihilated and disappear.

No disrespect, calling someone Mr Christian.

Of course, if a follower of Jesus is worshiping in a service on any day of the year, not just Christmas, and he is called to help someone in an emergency, he should go.

Worship is going on in the heavenlies 24/7 and 365¼ days a year, and the worship that happens in church services is just a part of that heavenly worship. God isn't gonna miss him if he leaves the service to help someone. Why? Because service is service. Worship doesn't just mean praying. Worship is in spirit and truth, that means, in your intention and in your action. It means doing whatever the will of God is at that special moment.

I am not a Catholic but an Orthodox Christian. The Church does not allow a Christian to marry a non-Christian. If they do, they lose their membership in the Body of Christ (the Church). The same is true for Catholics. What is not good, is for a non-Christian to convert to Christianity just to be able to marry a Christian. It is usually a false conversion. The problem is, a Christian who lets himself or herself decide to marry a Muslim is probably not a real Christian either, even if he or she has church membership. Being a member of a church does not make one a Christian. To believe in and trust Jesus Christ is an internal and non-legalistic action of your free will. Anything else that pretends to be Christian is just magic.

If a man is really a follower of Jesus and wants to marry a Muslim woman, and if she agrees to convert, she has to be in total obedience to her husband and let him teach her and show her Jesus, to strengthen her faith. He himself must also be in obedience to his church, and obey what his church teaches and practices. If he is a unconnected or unfellowshiped Christian, then he is already in trouble, because a man must be involved in the local church to be fully a Christian. If he is flying solo with his Christianity, he cannot expect his wife to obey him, since he is not obeying the command of Christ to be in the church. But if he is a real Christian, and is an active member of a local church, then his wife can convert from Islam to Christ, as long as she agrees to obey her husband and learn about Jesus with him and from him. Otherwise, it won't work.

As for a Muslim man converting to Christianity to marry a Christian woman, impossible. Why? Because the woman has to obey the man, not the other way round, both in Islam and in Christianity. How can he be under his wife's authority and learn from her about Christ? If he wants to marry a Christian woman, he has to first become a Christian, and then after some time of preparation and practice of his faith, so he can be tested, then he can take a Christian wife. This is how it is for the Church.

If a man and woman marry outside the Christian church, and are of different religious origins, they are looking for trouble.
But to convert just in order to marry is both dishonest and dangerous.

The modern world culture has made the delight in and the practice of homosegxwal acts the defining criteria for a new category of humans who are neither male nor female as God made us, but a new kind of being that is equal in all respects to normal humans.

There have always been persons of both sexes who have found themselves in the predicament of being attracted to others of the same sex more than those of the opposite sex. “For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:12) It did not follow automatically that they defiled themselves segxwally with others of the same sex. In fact, true manly love between men, such as David and Jonathan, was not homosegxwal as many claim, even though their love was as strong as or even stronger than the love between a man and a wife. This intensity of love does not necessarily include the performance of homosegxwal acts. People don’t want to accept this, but rather, they read into manly (or womanly) love a homosegxwality that is not intrinsically there. All homosegxwal desires and the acts that issue from them are a matter of free choice. Born eunuchs they may be, born gays they are not.

The mistake of modern man is to take one kind of response to this predicament and champion it, making it out to be the norm, the way that God intended people to be, and then pushing it on people who find themselves in this predicament. This is especially criminal when it is done within the public school system. Now that the culture hardly knows the scriptures or the tradition of the Church, now that it rejects reason and wisdom, even parents are confused and give in to it when their children decide that they are ‘gay.’ They have bought a bill of goods that robs them of their freedom to choose, and their children become the victims as well.

But we were not created for sinful acts or sinful covetousness. God does not create people in a way that it is unavoidable for them to be saved because of sin. He revealed in many places and times and to all people, really, that the abuse of sex is sinful, and that it stems from an attitude of contempt for God and worship of what is not God.

“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to segxwal impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” (Romans 1:22-27)

I wonder if even the Church remembers and knows that preference for others of the same sex does not automatically define the person as homosegxwal.

Soldiers and monastics are two groups of men who understand manly love as it really is. True, there are to be found some who have accepted the lie and indulged in homosegxwal desire and activity, but this is not the norm—these are sick people.

Those who follow wisdom, who follow Jesus, know what they were made for, when it is not for marriage. Both men and women who are born this way, because their love is not focused on their husbands and wives, their children and their possessions, can give, and have given, such immense love to others not related to them according to the flesh, have done such great deeds for Christ in their fellow men, that we call them ‘saints.’

The element of choice has always been present in every age, as has the element of temptation. We have met both kinds of personalities all through history.

Are the men and women “eunuchs” who followed Jesus and did not choose to express their love in an unlawful and destructive way even recognized by the world system? No, they are not. But they are known to God, and to us who follow the same Lord as they did, and within the nature we have each been given, seek also to glorify with them the God who creates our souls and bodies for righteousness and not for sin.

What response would those who sympathize with the ‘gay’ community have us make to those who defiantly flaunt their sin and blaspheme their Creator with pride in their sinful choice? Welcome them as they are as full members of Christ? If a man who commits sin with a prostitute has joined himself in one flesh with her, denying his Lord, how much more is the one who defiles himself or herself by segxwal sin with a person of the same sex cut off from fellowship with the Body of Christ.

Our God is Holy, and He says to us, “Be Holy, for I am Holy.”

There is a better way to deal with this “problem” than to capitulate to a sinful choice and expression. In fact, it is not really a “problem” at all to be “born a eunuch,” but actually a blessing, because such a person can give himself or herself with full commitment to the service of Christ and Christian society.

That is, if there is still any Christian society left.

Yes, the Bible is THE authority, but only for those who believe.

Brothers, the Bible is a collection of writings that the early (ancient) Christian church decided to make their standard of truth. They (the ancient Church) inherited the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures (translated in Egypt by Greek speaking Jews in the BC period) and the holy apostles sometimes quoted from these Greek scriptures and sometimes from the Hebrew originals when they wrote their letters to the first Christian communities (Rome, Corinth, Thessalonica, Colossae, Ephesus, etc).

This early church was mostly Greek speaking Jews and non-Jews, and a minority of Aramaic speaking Jews and non-Jews. Because the Greek language was in those early times like the English language is today, the ancient church decided that the Bible which they put together would only include writings in the Greek language.

That ancient collection of original Greek language scriptures is still used by the Orthodox Church, which is the modern day continuation of the ancient church. All the different versions you are asking about are translations from that ancient Greek Bible. That's why there can be many versions, because many people in all the countries have translated these writings into their mother tongues. If their intention was to translate faithfully, then the translations can be trusted.

But we always must go back to the Greek Bible to check on any disputed point, and ask those who speak the Greek language (not modern Greek, but Bible Greek, which is still spoken by many Greeks and other nationalities) what the words mean. You will discover, if you do this, that most disputes melt away, except when those who question are not interested in really understanding the truth, but only in building themselves up and creating factions based on their private interpretations.

This is why there are so many sects. But the churches that have the Greek Bible and accept it, even though they are many nations, all believe the same way, practice the one faith as handed over from ancient times, and do not fight with each other over doctrines and teachings. This group is called the Orthodox Church, and in Africa it exists from ancient times in Egypt and Ethiopia, and in modern times it has become native in countries like Ghana, Cameroun, Uganda, Kenya, Madagascar, and other places.

If you want to hear the Greek Bible being read in the original language, visit my blog, Η Καινή Διαθήκη (i kaini dhiathiki), http://i-kaini-dhiathiki.blogspot.com/

If you want to find out about the Orthodox Church look for it on the internet, or write me a message and I will answer you. I speak English, je parle français, yo hablo español, and of course, Greek.

I am a Greek Orthodox Christian, and I witness for Jesus. We do not argue, but patiently try to explain the Bible and the faith of Jesus Christ, and we welcome all people to become disciples and have faith in God's Son, who is the savior of the whole human race, but especially of believers.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Why? Because He loves us, and more than we love ourselves. He invites us to live in His Word, which is the Bible, and to make it our home, to speak its words, to think its thoughts, to let it take us apart and put us back together again. Sin has broken us. Jesus has come into the world to fix us. He was dead but He alive again and is with us at this moment. He is the most active person in the history of the world. Trust in Him.

Brothers, the Bible is a collection of writings that the early (ancient) Christian church decided to make their standard of truth. They (the ancient Church) inherited the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures (translated in Egypt by Greek speaking Jews in the BC period) and the holy apostles sometimes quoted from these Greek scriptures and sometimes from the Hebrew originals when they wrote their letters to the first Christian communities (Rome, Corinth, Thessalonica, Colossae, Ephesus, etc).

This early church was mostly Greek speaking Jews and non-Jews, and a minority of Aramaic speaking Jews and non-Jews. Because the Greek language was in those early times like the English language is today, the ancient church decided that the Bible which they put together would only include writings in the Greek language.

That ancient collection of original Greek language scriptures is still used by the Orthodox Church, which is the modern day continuation of the ancient church. All the different versions you are asking about are translations from that ancient Greek Bible. That's why there can be many versions, because many people in all the countries have translated these writings into their mother tongues. If their intention was to translate faithfully, then the translations can be trusted.

But we always must go back to the Greek Bible to check on any disputed point, and ask those who speak the Greek language (not modern Greek, but Bible Greek, which is still spoken by many Greeks and other nationalities) what the words mean. You will discover, if you do this, that most disputes melt away, except when those who question are not interested in really understanding the truth, but only in building themselves up and creating factions based on their private interpretations.

This is why there are so many sects. But the churches that have the Greek Bible and accept it, even though they are many nations, all believe the same way, practice the one faith as handed over from ancient times, and do not fight with each other over doctrines and teachings. This group is called the Orthodox Church, and in Africa it exists from ancient times in Egypt and Ethiopia, and in modern times it has become native in countries like Ghana, Cameroun, Uganda, Kenya, Madagascar, and other places.

If you want to hear the Greek Bible being read in the original language, visit my blog, Η Καινή Διαθήκη (i kaini dhiathiki), http://i-kaini-dhiathiki.blogspot.com/

If you want to find out about the Orthodox Church look for it on the internet, or write me a message and I will answer you. I speak English, je parle français, yo hablo español, and of course, Greek.

I am a Greek Orthodox Christian, and I witness for Jesus. We do not argue, but patiently try to explain the Bible and the faith of Jesus Christ, and we welcome all people to become disciples and have faith in God's Son, who is the savior of the whole human race, but especially of believers.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Why? Because He loves us, and more than we love ourselves. He invites us to live in His Word, which is the Bible, and to make it our home, to speak its words, to think its thoughts, to let it take us apart and put us back together again. Sin has broken us. Jesus has come into the world to fix us. He was dead but He alive again and is with us at this moment. He is the most active person in the history of the world. Trust in Him.

Brother (I don't know your name but your moniker is "democrazy", this comment is for you),

You have done a lot of study, you have displayed your knowledge for us, you have even shown us that you can include Greek and Arabic text and names in your demonstrations, though I am not sure that you can read and understand those languages. Myself, I can read Arabic with some understanding, so the Qur'an is open to me in the original. But more importantly, I can read and understand Greek fluently, and so the New Testament as well as the Greek version of the Old Testament are open to me in the original. (I also can read Hebrew and understand it relatively well, so the Tanakh and Talmud is somewhat open to me.) These are not my boasts, but I want to be fair with you, to know with whom you are dealing, though I am not here to debate. This is what you apparently want to do, so my comment will be short and without requiring a response.

To help you along with your reasoning, I have this to say. Do not make assumptions or build your arguments on the English text of the Bible or the Qur'an, especially the Bible, because no translation perfectly expresses the meaning of the original. What are we to do then? Can't we argue from the translated texts? To this I would answer, No, we cannot, but the reason may be not what you might expect. It's not because the translations are not exact or various between the many versions, but because meaning is dependent on living reality, on actual existence, and does not really reside in the words of the Bible (I limit muself to the Bible, as the Qur'an to me is not scripture at all), in no matter which language.

You have learning, intellectual ability, access to documentation. You have a reasoning mind, a perceptive mind, and you have found a field in which you have done a lot of digging with your mind, but you will never find what is living under all that weight of topsoil, clay and rocks. You may find a buried treasure there, if you are lucky, but only the dead are buried in that field, not the Living. I think you want to find the Living, because you want to justify your own life, you want to be convinced that you are alive, and for a reason, and you want others to be as fortunate as you are, in knowing the Truth.

But you haven't found the Truth yet, brother, because you are still digging where only the dead are buried. Thoughts have no life in them, ideas have no life. They take on reality only when Life is breathed into them. Until that time, they are merely thoughts, merely words to be blabbed into the air, creating sounds that could have meaning if someone heard them, but even then, only the Living can hear. All our study, all our enquiry, all our investigation, all our reasoning with the results, all of it, all of it is still-life, like a painting of fruits in a bowl, or flowers in vase, or a plate with bread, knife and a jug of milk. But you cannot taste those fruits, nor smell those blossoms, you cannot break and eat that bread or drink that milk—it's only a painting, not the reality. This is where all our research, thinking and reasoning will get us: no further than creating a still-life, a mere image, not the Reality, not the Living, not the Truth.

What else can I say? Brother, don't turn your life into death. Don't train your mind's eye on itself, but look outward, upward, receive your sight, and learn what or who the Truth is by living, by studying not words and ideas, but people, the world, life and death, faith and doubt, love and hate, man and woman, age and youth, wealth and poverty, health and sickness, and the list goes on in no particular order. But enter into this path as if there were no other, leave behind all opinions, even yours, abandon all defenses and the desire to win, let yourself be as fresh from the taint of death as a newborn baby, and then breathe in as for the first time the breath of Life, and in due time your eyes will really open, and not in books and words and ideas will you find the Truth, but in the face of the Living, the True and Faithful.

What was all this banter about religions true and false? Did I dream about it long ago? Was I ever awake before, or only now?
This is where you want to go, brother. Stop yourself in your tracks, raise your eyes up, and fly, don't walk.
You were made with wings.
Use them.

http://cost-of-discipleship.blogspot.com/

If Christians are following a religion in order to please God and gain His favor, then yes, they should be doing all these things, brother. But Christ is the end of religion. His followers just follow Him and do what they see Him doing, since He is still alive, unlike Muhammad and the other founders of religion, and He walks in the world seeking His sheep. That is what we are, who follow Jesus, the sheep of His pasture. So, we have no need of religion to get us closer to God. He has come down in the form of Man and is in fellowship with us. He has made us His brothers by adopting us into the family of the One God, who is the Holy Triad of Father, Son and Spirit. He has prepared a table for us in the presence of our enemies. And He sits down with us to break bread and eat with us. That is why we call Him, Immanu-El, that is, "with us [is] God." All glory to Him, for He IS the Truth, all glory to Him, for He IS our Peace, all glory to Him for His holy Death and Resurrection and Ascension to the Father. This is no religion, brother. Religion, all religion, is a sickness. Christ is the cure.

http://cost-of-discipleship.blogspot.com/2008/11/religion-is-sickness-and-christ-is-cure.html

Well, if something appears in the monstrance, that's the star-shaped disk that holds a piece of communion wafer, and it's in a catholic church, what do you expect? Even if they saw their own reflection in the piece of glass that holds the wafer in place, they would say it was Jesus. You don't expect them to say they saw the devil there, do you?

Thanks for the comment. Short but sweet!

The only true apparition of Jesus Christ is when He appears in the heart of the believer who has accepted Him by faith.
He is seen and known within the believer's mind and soul, through living in His holy Word, the divine scriptures, and feeding on Him who is the Bread of Life.
He is seen and known by others in the believer by watching his actions and hearing his words, both his testimonies.
"Let your light shine before men, so that seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in heaven"

This apparition is for spiritual babies. Someone wants to keep you all in that state. But you are not some primitive people who are unlearned in things of the Spirit, unless you want to be. We are not meant to be spiritual babies, but spiritually mature, following Jesus on two feet, not crawling after him on four, like a beast that has no knowledge.

Be children as far as wickedness is concerned, but be grown men and women as far as righteousness is concerned, and take on the yoke of Jesus, following Him, and letting Him be your life, and you His work.